Nothing says Easter like hot cross buns, and this recipe is guaranteed to please with a delectable combination of flavours including Pink Lady® apple, chocolate and orange zest. Best served with a generous spread of butter. Delicious!

Pink Lady® Apple, Chocolate & Orange Zest Hot Cross Buns

Pink Lady® Apple, Chocolate & Orange Zest Hot Cross Buns

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

  • 300ml - Full fat milk
  • 50g - Unsalted butter
  • 500g - Sieved strong bread flour
  • 10g - Caster sugar
  • 10g - Fast acting yeast
  • 1 - Beaten egg
  • 1tsp - Salt
  • 100g - Finely chopped dark chocolate
  • 1 - Zest of an orange
  • 1 - Cored and finely chopped Pink Lady® apple

Method: 

  1. Heat the milk in a pan and bring to the boil. When boiling, take off the heat and add the butter to melt. Leave to cool until warm but not hot.
  2. In a large mixing bowl mix the strong bread flour, caster sugar, salt and yeast. Make a well in the centre of the mix and slowly pour in your warm milk/butter and egg, combining the flour mixture to create a paste, keep going until it all comes together to form a dough. You can use a fork or your hand for this.
  3. With your formed dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes to create a smooth elastic dough that should spring back when you press it.
  4. Put the kneaded dough into a clean well-oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling film. Leave in a warm dry place until doubled in size, which should roughly take an hour.
  5. Once your dough has risen add your chocolate, apple and orange zest and knead through to fully combine.
  6. The mixture should weigh about 1.08 kg, if you divide it by 12 each bun should weigh about 90g.
  7. Form each bun into a neat round shape and place onto a lined baking tray, leaving space for each bun to grow. Lightly score a cross into each bun.
  8. Cover with oiled cling film or a clean t towel and leave to grow for another hour.
  9. Once risen, glaze the buns with some milk.
  10. To make the cross, slowly mix about 8 tbsp of water to the plain flour until you have a paste that you can pipe. Put into a piping bag or a freezer bag and snip the corner. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
  11. Put into a preheated oven 200c fan/gas 7 for 20 minutes.
  12. Once your buns are baked, place onto a cooling rack.Heat the honey and brush onto the buns to glaze.

Recipe courtesy of Pink Lady®. Breakfast Week runs from 24th - 30th January. 

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